


All She Needed

by IndiSmile, RK3996



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Multi, Will have spoilers of every route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-03 05:16:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21174041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndiSmile/pseuds/IndiSmile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RK3996/pseuds/RK3996
Summary: Ever since she was a small child, Byleth had only two constants in her life, her father Jeralt, and her friend Sothis. And yet, despite nothing else ever staying the same, she has always thought to herself that they were all she needed.





	1. The Beginning

In a place outside of time and space, there sat a throne. A great stone throne, simple in design, yet magnificent all the same. In a word, it was fit for a queen.

And atop that throne sat a sleeping girl who looked so very young, yet held the weight of ages within her radiant countenance. In seconds, she awoke, disturbed by the sudden presence in this strange place. And so her green eyes did open as her divine gaze looked upon the one who disturbed her long slumber.

“...That is a baby.”

That was a baby. A very small baby, pudgy and pale, sitting on the stone floor and staring up at her.

The goddess blinked. The baby blinked back.

“...Why are you here?” Sothis asked.

The baby just stared back. It was a weird baby. Most babies were weird, but this one was especially because one, it wasn’t making any noise, and two, that was a baby in her place and that was just...what?

“...Right then. I am going back to sleep. Try not to wander around.”

The baby didn’t reply.

Thus started the strangest friendship Fódlan would ever see.

The baby was back.

It was bigger now though, and its hair was longer. Blue hair...Well, more teal? Tealish.

“What color is that?” Sothis asked, a little curious.

The baby didn’t reply. Again.

“...You do not know what colors are, do you? No, what am I saying, you do not know what anything is, you are a baby. Why do you keep coming here? Should you not be…” She frowned. What did babies do? 

This one just sat and stared at her. Not even out of interest, it just seemed to stare because she was the only thing there to look at. It was like she was a strangely dark spot on a wall of drying paint, mildly interesting but just another part of the background.

“...What am I supposed to do with you?”

Again, the baby didn’t answer, and Sothis sighed.

“You had better be able to speak the next you arrive here…”

Time meant nothing in her throne room, but Sothis was starting to get impatient nonetheless. 

“Are you able to speak now?”

No reply from the...toddler? It was bigger now and actually looking around the room, though its eyes kept going back to Sothis. Very blank eyes there, which were definitely blue. “...” The toddler made a...motion. It wasn’t a shrug, but it moved, which was new.

Suddenly, a change! The toddler stood! After a few seconds of trying to push itself up, at least. 

“Oh?” Sothis watched with interest. 

The toddler was standing. The toddler was staring. The toddler sat back down.

Sothis was annoyed.

“My name is Byleth,” the child introduced herself, and Sothis nearly fell from her throne in shock.

But she didn’t. Because she was a regal person and regal people didn’t fall off of their thrones, nor would they flash back in time to try to cover for anything like that. 

“Oh, I see. Hm, I shall not ever understand human names...How did you get here?”

“...My name is Byleth,” the child repeated, a little more slowly.

“I heard you the first time. How did you get here?”

Byleth stared at her, then looked around. “...Papa…”

“Papa? What, did your father leave you here? No, how would that work? You are being very obtuse about this.”

It seemed the child was no longer paying attention to her as they wandered around, looking for their papa. How annoying, first they don't answer her properly, and now they ignore her. 

She really hoped they became less annoying next time they came. 

She had a knife. For some reason, the small child had a knife strapped to her waist. Who would give a child something like that? 

"Who gave you that?" Sothis asked as she looked down at the weapon.

"..." A slight tilt of the head was the only indication that she was confused. 

"The weapon. Who would give you that, and why?"

"...Papa. To protect myself." 

"Hm? Is the world something so dangerous that everyone needs to arm themselves?" 

"...No?" 

"Then why would he give you something like that?"

"It was a gift." 

"Why must you always be so obtuse." 

"...Sorry?" This won't do. This really won't do. The child before her only left her annoyed and confused, so the only course of action was to follow the child to find out where she came from. 

She must admit, she certainly didn't expect to come to at a camp, with what appeared to be several armored warriors breaking their tents down as they prepared for the day. None of them caught her interest, aside from the one who seemed to be in charge, shouting out orders as he stood near the child almost protectively. It also appeared as if no one could see her as no one reacted to her appearance. Either that or children walking into encampments was a common sight. 

"..." Feeling eyes upon her, Sothis couldn't help but let a smirk grow on her face as she looked down. Byleth finally rising from her slumber to see Sothis floating above her, her eyes widening enough to tell her that the child was incredibly surprised. 

"I must say, if I had known these were the type of people you live with, that would have explained so much." 

"Papa." Standing up, Byleth walked over to who Sothis assumed was her father, and began to tug on his sleeve. 

"Hm? Is something wrong?" Rather than respond, Byleth pointed over at Sothis as if that would explain everything. "Did you see something in the woods?"

"No. Right there. The girl from the dream." 

"...” Her father stared at the point, then shook his head and gave his child a tired smile, “I'm sorry kid, I don't see anything. Maybe you're still tired?" 

"It seems like only you can see me,” Sothis noted as she drifted closer, examining Byleth’s father. The child certainly didn’t take after the parent there, neither of them shared any hint of hair or eye color. Perhaps she took after her mother then?

“Yeah,” Byleth agreed, nodding up at Sothis. Though with Sothis floating in front of her father, it looked a great deal like the child was agreeing with her father. Whose name Sothis did not know. 

“Commander Jeralt! We’re all packed up!” It seemed fortune favored Sothis on this day.

Jeralt nodded to the inconsequential soldier under his command, then knelt by his daughter with another smile. “We’re going now. Are you ready?”

Byleth nodded back quite promptly. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Jeralt scooped his daughter up into his arms, holding her with obvious practice. “Make sure to hold on tight, okay? We’re going to be traveling far, and that means Papa’s going to be riding his horse. Do you remember his horse’s name?”

“No.”

Jeralt sighed, still with a smile. “That’s okay. We can work on it.”

Argo. That was the name of the horse as Sothis would soon come to learn. And as she thought about it, she didn't particularly understand horse names either, but oh well. Regardless, it seemed odd to her that a small child such as Byleth would always be around a group of mercenaries, really only parting ways for brief periods of times when they had to go and fight. 

It was interesting though. Whenever they were apart, the young child seemed to prefer training, rather than playing with any other children nearby. More often than not, Byleth’s efforts ended with her injuring herself, as her attempts to copy her father in matters of swordplay did not end well. To make matters even odder, even when she bruised or cut herself as she trained, she refrained from crying, only staring at her injuries for a few moments before deciding that she had trained enough for that day.

"You know, you are only going to keep getting hurt if you continue trying to copy him." 

"...Dad got strong like this." 

"And you're just a child! He can lift ten of you, so of course he can do that training with no problem. Look, let's just get you patched up, and then when he gets back, you can ask him to train you." 

Byleth nodded, apparently accepting her words with ease. "Do you know how to use the medicine?"

"...I'm sure we can figure it out easy enough with the two of us."

While she would never say it to Byleth, Sothis did find it hilarious to see Jeralt’s reaction when he came back to find Byleth mummified with bandages.

It was so much more fun to see this world than it was to remain at her throne.


	2. Father and Daughter

If Jeralt had learned anything in the past decade of his life, it was that being a father was difficult. Amusing at times, but mostly a challenge, especially with his circumstances.

Sure, there were other single fathers out in Fódlan, but most of them weren’t an ex-knight of Seiros, the leader of a mercenary band, and father to a child whose heart didn’t beat. He’d never forget those moments of sudden terror he’d have at night when he checked Byleth and thought, just for a second each time, that his only daughter had died in her sleep. 

But no, she’d always be breathing in that oddly even way of hers, her eyes opening to stare blankly up at him. She was so tiny then, and so completely mute. He couldn’t help but feel scared sometimes. Scared she’d have something wrong with her and just never give any hint to it until it was too late. Scared he’d somehow leave her behind because she never made any noise to let him know she was there. Scared that somehow, some way, Rhea would swoop down on them from the night and carry her off.

He had nightmares about that last thought. 

But beneath that fear was a sort of joy too. One that grew as he watched his little girl grow.

On some level, he’d been worried she would always be that muted child, barely reacting to anything and never speaking a word, but those fears were unfounded. Sure, she could be quiet and often only spoke as much as she needed to, but she actually started taking on interests.

Sure, said interests might’ve been learning how to use a weapon, but it was a start. And it wasn't even like she was completely copying him either, since she seemed to want to learn about the sword first rather than spear like he used. Now, he would never admit that he was a bit sad that she didn't want to learn how to use a spear first, but anyone who knew him, knew that the grin he gave her when she asked how to use a spear was prouder than any other he’d given her before. 

And it didn't stop there, since horse riding lessons came soon after. Argo was more than happy to let her ride by herself, so he didn't need to hold her hand for long there. It was a shame that no one in the group had a pegasus though. At one point during their travels, a pegasus knight flew overhead, thus prompting Byleth to ask to ride one. And while he did need to comfort her when she learned she couldn't, a part of him was glad to see her express herself in more ways. 

Though he was even happier when he lifted her up as if she was flying, her sadness fading away as she flew in his arms.

And he did find it cute how adamant she was that she didn't want to learn how to use a bow, almost pouting since she was never able to hit the target at all. Well, no reason to push the issue on her; if she didn't want to learn it, she didn't have to. It was the same for the heavier armor sets too. Maybe it was just because she was small at the time and wound up looking dwarfed no matter what set they gave her, but she really didn’t take to wearing anything too weighty, instead preferring to stick to training her agility and awareness so she didn’t have to worry about getting hits.

"Come on, got something to show you." Calling out to Byleth, Jeralt led her over to a nearby river to where the group had set up camp for the day. He never did like having to set up camp in the woods as he would prefer his daughter have a roof over her head, but sometimes they had no choice but to, especially when any nearby villages was far too close to the churches, or garreg mach in general. 

"What is this?" Byleth questioned as she was given a fishing rod as they sat by the river.

"We're running low on food, so we gotta stock up what we can. Hope you're ready for fish for the next couple of days." Pulling out some bait, he showed her how to properly hook it, before casting it out into the river, with Byleth copying suit, though it wasn't able to hit the center of the river like his. Grinning, he focused on the water, ready to pull anything in as soon as it bit. 

"Now what?" 

"We wait."

"Okay." At least she was able to listen to orders well enough. Or, as well as she could as he could tell that she kept glancing away, off to her side. 

"Is something wrong?" 

"No. My friend is just bored." For a brief moment, Jeralt felt like he had a heart attack, hearing his daughter actually refer to someone as a friend. 

"You made a friend? Really?" 

"Yeah. The girl from the dream." Oooh, that made sense. Heh, his daughter had an imaginary friend. How cute. 

"Is that so? Well I'm glad for you. What's her name?" 

"Sothis." 

That time, Jeralt was sure he had a heart attack. 

"...W-What was that?" 

"Her name is Sothis." 

Jeralt had to thank all his years of experience that he didn't break his fishing rod as his grip tightened, a deep fear spreading across his body at the revelation that his daughter's friend was somehow had the same name as the goddess of Fódlan. Clearly, this just had to be a coincidence, as there was no way she knew the name of the goddess… unless this was something Rhea did. No. No. He was just being paranoid. She probably just heard it from a villager, yeah, that was it. 

"...Well, you can tell your friend to settle in. Fishing is a game of patience. But it's a rewarding one."

"Really?" As if the world was deciding to work with him, he felt a tug as a fish took the bait.

"Of course, I'll show you." Grinning, Jeralt pulled back, reeling in the fish with all the strength he had, before it came flying out of the water, expertly caught in his hand as it flew to him. "See?" And, the look of awe that he got from Byleth was more than enough to calm him down, so the pair settled in for their fishing. 

And he did have to admit, she did have a knack for it, thanks to her muted nature. Even when she was getting restless, she remained quiet enough to not scare off any fish. Now if only Alois could have been like her… 

Regardless, they ended up fishing quite a lot of fish, and Byleth didn't even seem sad that she caught less fish than Jeralt. Of course, the best part came next, since nothing felt better than eating something that you had just caught, especially when it was washed down with a nice refreshing drink. 

And it seemed Byleth seemed to agree with him as she eagerly chowed down on the fish she caught, even if she wasn't able to have the same drink as him. 

"Heh, someone's eating a lot." Finishing off his ale, he grinned down at her. 

"..." Swallowing the fish in her mouth, she looked away, as if embarrassed by his teasing, but after a few moments, she looked back. "I'm eating for two." 

Somehow, despite all the noise in the camp, everything seemed to go dead quiet for Jeralt as he stared down at his daughter, feeling what he assumed was the third heart attack of the day. 

"...Oh! Wait, you mean your friend yeah?" A feeling of relief washed over Jeralt as she nodded, but even so, he began to plan out his means of attack to make sure the mercenaries in his group refrained from talking like that in front of Byleth again. 

And so it went, the father-daughter duo sticking together as she grew up, slowly becoming more and more skilled with various weapons until she became his second in command, earning the title “Ashen Demon”, thanks to her unflinching courage in combat. 

But, as proud as he felt, Jeralt loved nothing more than the quiet moments when they fished together, simply enjoying each others’ company. Though he still never let her drink ale, even as she grew up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Indi: being the dad of someone who has the goddess in her head must be quite difficult.
> 
> Red: Jeralt seems to be making due though. 3 near-heart attacks in one day is probably not great, but he's doing pretty okay with his "slightly off" child.
> 
> Indi: for now anyways. Oh, and as obvious as it may be just wanna state that the perspective will generally change between chapters, and as such there will be times when sothis isnt there since only byleth can see her.
> 
> Red: Yup. She'll still be there, she just won't be perceivable.
> 
> Indi: when shes not feel free to imagine her doing whatever you want since realistically she does whatever she wants to a certain extent.
> 
> Red: Byleth's general lack of emotional expression means Sothis is very likely making dumb faces or impressions behind anyone in a given scene.

**Author's Note:**

> Indi: Fucking, never thought I'd write fanfiction again, but here we are. Hope all of you enjoy it, and as a heads up, this will follow the black eagles route, with some possible changes.
> 
> Red: The lure of Three Houses was too strong. Its setting calls for exploration.
> 
> Indi: it really was, which we shall hopefully be doing. And hopefully the eventual dlc won't change to much of the story.
> 
> Red: Regardless of that, hope you all enjoy!


End file.
